Musical instrument



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

U. 0. & 0. F. HILL. MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

No. 5,164. I Patented June 19, 1847.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2,

U. G. 8: G. P. HILL. MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

No. 5,164. Patented June 19, 1847.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

U. G. HILL AND O. F. HILL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 5,164, dated June 19; 1847.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, URELI C. HILL andCHARLES F. HILL of the cit count and State of New York, have invented anew Musical Instrument, which we have named the Hilleno; and we dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the construction and operation of the same, referencebeing had to the annexed drawings.

The principles used to produce the sounds in this instrument are these:Forks, like the ordinary tuning-fork, vibrate over apertures in chambersof air; and springs, which are wires bent and fastened at one end to aconductor or rack, vibrate on a sounding board. The forks are used inthe treble, middle, and part of the bass; the springs complete the lowerpart of the scale. Keys and action nearly as those of the up right pianoare used to set these springs and forks in vibration, or the whole maybe put to a horizontal action. If a pitch middle C tuning -fork vibrateover the month while open to a certain capacity, a strong tone will begiven, and as the mouth is opened to more, or closed to less than thatgiven capacity, the tone of the fork will be impaired, for the capacityof the mouth would thus become too small or too large for the C. fork,though not for a higheror lower note than C. The larger capacity wouldrequire a lower fork, and the smaller capacity a higher fork.

Cells, 0r chambers. See Figure 1, Drawing l.-The materials of which thechambers may be made are various. Wood, metal and glass we have found toanswer nearly equally well. The apertures or months (Fig. 2, Drawing 1)in the chambers may be about half the length and about the width of theprongs of the forks corre sponding to them, (see Fig. 8, Drg.,l). Wehave not found thin wood (like veneer), or thin lead, or common tin toanswer well, only for the small chambers; the larger chambers wantthicker or stiffer material. In the I-Iilleno for compactness andfacility we use chambers, narrow and square, unless in the upper notes,where holes cut or bored through a block of wood in a line with thelower chambers, we find simple and satisfactory. These chambers or cellswhen all glued and put together we call a stack, the larger end of whichcontains the bass (or lower) chambers, and the small end the treblechambers. We find that two forks, a semitone apart will do, over onechamber, by having the chamber of a tone between the adjoiningsemitones, which would give SIX chambers to the octave; but in the uppernotes we prefer a chamber to each note, as the width of the key givesroom enough for doing so; and by widening the action, single chambersmay be applied to every semitone. In this stack we find the right handside of a chamber to do for the left hand side of the chamber above. Inmaking these chambers of wood, the material ought to be no less than a.quarter of an inch thick, especially in the lower ones. Perhaps thechambers are best in the larger ones if tight, only opening at theapertures or mouths for the forks. (Though they may be open at bothends, especially in the high notes.) And a hole or two may be bored inthe rim of the chamber to raise the pitch of it. Thus, a chamber formiddle C, might be raised to the D, above; or by thinning the side ofthe C. chamber it may be flattened to B or B, flat. If a chamber bestiffened by a bar, or bars, or by a post or firm connection of thesides, it raises the pitch of it. The pitch of a chamber may be found byblowing in the aperture, or by striking the side of it. The aperture ormouth to the chamber maybe through a short tube or neck to the prong ofthe fork.

The fork should be quite close to the aperture, as represented in Fig.2, Drg. 1.

Forks and fork-mil. See Figs. 3 and 4c, Drg, 1.-The forks in the Hillenoare nearly like the ordinary tuning-fork. The shaft (or handles) weprefer fiat or square. The lower forks are longest, gradually decreasinguntil they become very short in the higher notes. The fork may haveprongs about five inches long, a of an inch wide, of an inch thick and-7 an inch apart; with a shaft or handle three inches long, inch thickand same width as the prongs. The forks at about middle A or C. may benearly like the common tuning fork; and the same may be used to the topof the scale by shortening the prongs, (Fig. 5, in Drawing 1). Fromabout 7th leger line treble F to the top of the scale, a shoulder, (Fig.5,

Drg. 1,) may be of service delicately to sus- 1,) an eighth, 01' aquarter of an inch thick, and g of an inch wide in the bass, andgradually lessening toward the treble. The forks from about said F tothe top of the scale, ought to be lightly held in a socket (see Fig. 6,Drg. 1,) (or by small wires or cord.) The ends of the shafts, orhandles, should not touch anything, especially in the upper forks. Thefork rail stands obliquely, to bring the top of the forks in ahorizontal line, and the forks are arranged on the rail, to correspondwith the keys and hammers (see Figs. 7, 8, and 11, Drawing 1, andletters D, E, and H, Drawing 2.) Leather or cloth between the rail andforks prevents in a measure unnecessary noise from the stroke. The railshould be supported on unvibrating material as cloth, or the like toprevent noise and yet be firm to prevent the fork from touching thechamber, which it should be near to. The forks are arrangedperpendicularly at the back ends of the keys; the prongs point upwardand match the upper line of the apertures in the chambers behind them.

Springs, spring-rack, and sounding-board. (Letters A, B, and C, Drg.2.)-VVhere the forks become hard to agitate and the chambersinconveniently large, springs are used to complete the scale. Thesprings are best of steel wire, and the wire becomes longer as the tonesdescend, though the same wire being differently bent will give differenttones. A wire about fifteen inches long and about inch diameter by beingbent somewhat in the form of the right hand spring, Drg, 2, letter A,might give bass 3 line D or the E or F above and by cutting off at theend, the tone would rise; or by filing it thinner it may be lowered, soof other forms. About three feet of the same wire may be bent intolarger circles, or parallels as A, A, Drawing 2, and may produce aboutthe low C of the grand piano; but the vibrating forms of springs usedare very various. (See E, Drg. 2.) If two wires are the same in lengthand in form, but of different sizes, the large wire tends to the highersound, and the small wire to the lower sound. A spring that does notsound well, may by some slight difference in the bending be greatlyimproved. These springs at one end are firmly fastened to a rack byrivets or screws at the same dis tance apart as the width of the keys,where one spring is used to each note. This rack (see letter B, Drawing2) is placed on a sounding board which lies in the bottom of theinstrument, and under the keys (see letter C, Drawing 2) and the springsrise perpendicularly for about six or more inches above the fastenings,until in a horizontal line with the forks, where the springs bend towardthe back of the instrument into their various forms.

Dampcrs and general bringing together 0 the parts. ter F, Drawing 2.Thedampers (see Fig. 9, Drg. l, and letter F, Drg. 2,) are hinged on aframe at the back and top of the instrument. They are horizontal, and atright angles with the back near which they are hinged. They are about ofequal lengths, and on the lower side of the front ends are the damperheads 10, Drg. 1, and G, Drawing 2, which fall on the horizontal lineand ends of springs and forks. Under the dampers and back of the forksare placed the chambers. Just under and before the damper heads andhorizontal line of the forks and springs are the hammer heads, (see Fig.11, Drg. 1, and letter H, Drg. 2,) each hammer head fronting a fork orspring. Perpendicularly under the dampers and hammers and in front ofthe line of springs and forks are the keys No. 7, Dig. 1, and D, Drg. 2.From the back end of the keys, to the front end of the dampers above,are damper wires No. 12, Drg. 1, and T, Drg. 2, which as the back endsof the keys rise, liftthe dampers off the springs and forks by the samemotion that throws the hammers against them. The action used inillustration is like the upright cottage piano and the tones correspondwith the key board in chromatic succession.

Sundry additional rcma-rlcs.The haminer heads in the bass are soft,gradually hardening, until near or above 7th leger line treble F. Apoint of metal or wood covered perhaps with parchment will bring thebest tones. The upper forks (above the piano compass or scale) dependmuch less on the chambers than those below. The upper chambers thoughsmaller than ladies thimbles, yet improve the tones some. Chambers maybe applied to the springs; but we have not found them of muchimportance. If a small weight be fastened on the loose end of a springit will lower its tone, but probably impair it. Lower springs may, ormay not be wrapped with covering wire. Chambers or cells may be ofalmost any hard material. and of almost any form, the spherical formperhaps being best; but the narrow form most compact. The same capacity.of different materials of different resistance gives different tones.So the form of the chamber in the same capacity we believe givesdifferent effects. The soft pedal may be produced by interposingsomething soft between hammers and springs and forks; or by moving theboxes from the forks. .Vithout spreading the keys, the chambers may beconveniently used to 2d space base C. The springs can as conveniently becarried to the octave above.

The cells, we call single, double, open and close, the single cell hasone note, or fork-the double cell has two notes, or forks:

See Fi 9. Drw 1 and let-' the open cell, by being open at each end, thevibrations pass through it. The close cell, having but one opening, thevibrations return to that opening. A stack of cells may be constructedthus: From the C, in the second space in the bassor from the F, on thefourth lineto the C, above, double close cells may be used. The backs ofthese cells may be movable, but must fit tight, in order to raise, orlower the pitch of each. Tune each cell to the lower of its two tones,then over the key to the lower of the two tones, have a hole in thebottom of the cell which shall raise the pitch to the upper of its twonotes. In striking the key of the lower tone it must close the hole thatproduces the upper tone of the two. Then continue up an octave withclose double cells, each tuned to the tone between adjoinino' semitones,without the semitone holes be ow. For the third octave have eitherdouble, or single cells, close, or open. For the remainder have singleopen cells, and use them to above the high C of the grand piano. Thesmaller the mouth of a cell the Hatter will be the pitch of it, and viceversa. Cells may have pipe-mouths to be used, (as in an organ) or metalreeds (as attached to the piano) may be put to the Hilleno. Cells mayhave tuning slides to increase or diminish their capacity. Forks, struckata distance, produce a swell on being brought near, the cells. Forksmay be of more than two prongs-if, of four, two may be in unison, andtwo at an octave or fifth from those unisonsa division may be made inthe cell to suit the different vibrations of the prongs. The I-Iillenoshould have fretted ends and be of open, not confined, construction. Theprongs of the upper forks are thick inproportion to their lengths, beingabout an eighth of an inch thickthe shank if too long or too thin, willspoil the vibrationthe same will be the efieot if the socket pinch theshank of high forks-the sockets may be brass with thin leather front andback between it and the fork-shank. The two prongs of the 'upper forksmust be alike, or they will not sound, or but poorly they ought tovibrate loud for nearly, or quite, a quarter of a minutethe stroke ofthe hammer against them must not be too strong. The rack may stand onone or more points. The shorter the wire of a spring to produce a givennote (in that spring) the less harmonics there will be in the saidspring.

That we claim and wish to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Combining in musical instruments, cells or chambers (open at one, orboth ends) with strings, or reeds, or springs, or tuning forks,substantially upon the principles and for the purposes above set forth.

2. WVe claim also the manner of sustaining, or suspending the forks usedfor the high notes as described.

3. Ive also claim using hard points upon the hammers used to strike thehigh notes.

4. We also claim the employment of metallic springs, of the characterdescribed, in conjunction with tuning forks, in a musical instrument,substantially in the manner described.

55. We also claim the employment of a rack, B B B B, intervening betweenthe sounding board and said metallic springs.

6. We also claim the peculiar mode of constructing the forks, for thehigh-notes, giving them such relative proportions in the shaft (or stem)and prongs as to bring out the sounds, all in the manner described.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names this twentysixth day of January 1847.

U. C. HILL. CHARLES F. HILL. Subscribed in presence of us: J. W.IVESTERWELT, J. C. ALBERTSON.

